Israeli law bans former soldiers and critics of the occupation from speaking in schools

Breaking the Silence gives a lecture in a school. (Photo: Breaking the Silence)

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Israel can now ban critics of the occupation from giving presentations to school children, according to a law passed Monday night by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. Known as the “Breaking the Silence” law, the bill passed with a majority of 43 votes in favor and 24 against.

The bill was submitted by the right-wing Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s party and states individuals and groups that seek to “inflict harm upon IDF soldiers” are barred from entering educational institutions “when this activity is of a nature that undermines state education goals, or is such that endeavors to inflict harm upon IDF soldiers who are a consensus in Israeli society.”

The legislation specifically targets the the left-wing Israeli group Breaking the Silence (the organization’s name was in the official working title of the bill) which collects and publishes testimony from former Israeli army soldiers about the military’s human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The group regularly conducts tours inside the West Bank city of Hebron as well as lectures in Israeli schools.

One of the law’s clauses expands the reach to prohibit persons or groups who “initiate legal proceedings outside Israel against IDF soldiers for an action carried out in the course of their military duty.”

In 2016 El-Ad asked members of the UN Security Council to sanction Israel for its settlement activity. Because of that speech, El-Ad will likely be prohibited under the new law from giving lectures inside Israeli educational institutions.

Israeli soldiers take position during clashes with Palestinian protesters in the West Bank city of Hebron on July 14, 2018. (Photo: Wisam Hashlamoun/APA Images)

B’Tselem spokesperson Amit Gilutz told Mondoweiss he plans on ignoring the law. Gilutz said he is “certain all of our outreach activities to the Israeli public will continue regardless of this or another law. It is our basic duty.”

“Control over the Palestinians requires control over Israel’s perceptions. Controlling Palestinians involves incessant violence, and the attempts to address Israeli opposition to this violence requires oppressing those who oppose and labeling them ‘enemies from within’,” El-Ad said. “When the occupation will finally end, this piece of legislation will not be worthy even of a footnote.”

In protest of the law members of Breaking the Silence took to the Knesset on Tuesday where they held a lecture for Israeli students. Ynet reported from event, quoting from Ido Even-Paz, the Breaking the Silence activist who led the session, “[T]he Breaking the Silence Law is only the harbinger of the actions being taken to silence opposing voices,” adding that “similar laws that will pass in the future will only raise the barrier against anyone who dares to resist. Now it requires us to be brave and fight.”

About Yumna Patel

Yumna Patel is a multimedia journalist based in Bethlehem, Palestine. Follow her on Twitter at @yumna_patel

No surprise here. The dumbing down of the youth, spearheaded by MK of Education bucky bennett (of the ‘no apologies’ campaign), in the continued efforts by the state to raise ignorant, violent, paranoid children with persecution complexes and turn them into ignorant violent ‘soldiers’ with murder and rape on their minds. Who’s going to stop them?

“The Nazis swept away many of the freedoms that Germans had enjoyed under the Weimar Republic. The Nazi’s control of the legal system made opposition to the regime very difficult.

Judges had to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler and were expected always to act in the interests of the Nazi state.
All lawyers had to join the Nazi Lawyers’ Association, which meant they could be controlled.
The role of defence lawyers in criminal trials was weakened.
Some trials were staged as publicity stunts.
“People’s Courts” were set up in 1934 to try those accused of “crimes against the state”.
Standard punishments for crime were abolished, so local prosecutors could decide what penalties to impose on those found guilty.
The number of crimes that carried the death penalty increased from three to 46.
“Protective custody” was introduced for those who might commit a crime. This meant people could be arrested and interned even if they had not broken the law.
These changes meant the legal system was no longer fair. People lost many of their civil rights”https://www.bbc.com/education/guides/z2p3k2p/revision/2

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